One dead in Clinton Township house fire

A fire that swept through a house in Clinton Township on Sunday morning claimed the life of a 20-year-old man who resided there but two of his friends were able to escape.

Josh Luczak, a 2010 graduate of L’Anse Creuse High School, died of smoke inhalation and burns in the fire on the 21000 block of Remick, near Gratiot Avenue and 16 Mile Road, authorities said.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but fire officials have ruled out foul play, said Fire Chief John Shea.

“Our preliminary investigation indicates the fire began where the occupant was found, in a bedroom,” Shea said.

Fire crews were called about 11:07 a.m. after neighbors saw smoke coming from the house.

The two friends had stayed at the residence overnight watching skateboarding videos. They awoke to smoke conditions in the house and were able to get out. They made several attempts to reach Luczak, but the flames were too severe for them to reach him, fire officials said in a news release.

Firefighters, assisted by fire crews from Mount Clemens arrived on the scene about four minutes after receiving the call for help and found flames had engulfed four rooms. They were able to quickly knock down the fire, but found Luczak in a bed in the bedroom.

One of the friends told WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) that the three went to bed early in the morning and Luczak moved to his mother’s room when she went to work about 6:30 a.m. The friend said he awoke to someone yelling that the house was on fire and he jumped out of a window to escape.

The victim lived in the house with his mother, Laurie Luczak, neighbors said.

Luczak was popular among his friends and loved to skateboard, said Debbie Boone, a Mount Clemens businesswoman whose daughter Katie is a friend of his.

“He was just the sweetest kid,” said Boone, a co-owner of Bath City Bistro in Mount Clemens. “He often would come into downtown Mount Clemens to ride his skateboard near the fountain, and then he’d stop in the restaurant to see everybody. He had a lot of friends.”

Kenneth Beckett, 23, of Mount Clemens, described Luczak as a non-judgmental young man who loved hockey and hanging out with his friends. He said Luczak’s skateboard activities were restricted once he came down with Crohn’s disease, a gastrointestinal condition that causes abdominal pain and weight loss.

Beckett said he met Luczak years ago while skateboarding with friends.

“He just walked up out of the blue and said ‘Hey - do you guys want to teach me to skateboard,’” Beckett recalled, adding that after a few hours of learning, Luczak, who was 9 at the time, was able to skateboard over a three-step landing.

Asked his thoughts on the fire, Beckett became choked up. “It’s not right,” he said.

Sunday’s incident was the second fire fatality in Clinton Township this year. In January, wheelchair-bound author and disability rights advocate Loreena Minaudo, 59, died in a house fire on Biland Street.

Shea, the fire chief, said there are no commonalities between the two incidents. But both underscore the importance of having a working smoke detector inside of residences, although investigators don’t know if there was a detector at the Luczak house.

“The fire department did everything we can possibly do but some outcomes are predetermined upon our arrival, such as what happened here today,” Shea said.